Part 41
Pharaoh without God! He did not mourn and moan and spend his
time in writing petitions to Potiphar, or making appeals to Potiphar.
He set himself to be of service to his fellow prisoners and the
wardens and very soon he was at the front, again, for, "The Lord
was with him." When he came to be exalted and Pharaoh made him
ruler over Egypt, notice what he did! He did not strut about, or take
his case to court. He did not stop to enjoy his honors in peace and
leave others to do the business, but he set to his work, personally
and at once! Read Genesis 41:45–"And Joseph went out over all
the land of Egypt."
Then read the next verse–"And Joseph went out from the
presence of Pharaoh and went throughout all the land of Egypt."
No sooner did he get the office than he gave himself to the
execution of it, personally inspecting the whole country! Many are
so worn out by their toils in getting a position that they have no
strength left for performing their duties. When they get a new
position, their first consideration is how they shall spend the profits
from it. Place-hunters seldom try to make themselves fit for the
position, but crave the position whether they are fit for it or not!
Many, when they get an office, are exceedingly skillful in showing
how not to do it–they get into the office and pass on everything to
the next clerk and he to the next, so that nothing is done!
Procrastination is the very hinge of business and punctuality the
thief of time. They do as little as they can for the money, upon the
theory that if you are too energetic your labors will be too cheap.
Joseph, however, was not of that sort, for no sooner was he made
commissioner-general of Egypt, than he was up to his eyes in the
task of building storehouses and gathering up grain to fill them. By
his wonderful economic policy, he supplied the people in the time
of famine and in the process, the power of Pharaoh was greatly
strengthened. The Lord was with him–therefore he did not think of
the honor to which he had been promoted, but of the responsibility
which had been laid upon him–and he gave himself wholly to his
great work. That is what you and I must do if we are to give
practical proof that God is with us! But notice again, God was with
Joseph and that made him tender and sympathetic. Some men who
are prompt enough in business are rough, coarse, hard–but not
Joseph! His tenderness distinguishes him. He is full of loving
consideration.
When he had prisoners in his charge, he did not treat them
roughly, but with much consideration. He watched their
countenances, enquired into their troubles and was willing to do all
in his power for them. This was one secret of his success in life–he
was everybody's friend. He who is willing to be the servant of all,
the same shall be the chief of all. God was with Joseph and taught
him compassion, for God, Himself, is very pitiful and full of
sympathy for the suffering. Perhaps you will object to this, that
Joseph seemed, for a while, to afflict and tantalize his brothers. By
no means! He was seeking their good. The love he bore to them
was wise and prudent. God, who is far more loving than Joseph,
frequently afflicts us to bring us to repentance and to heal us of
many evils. Joseph wished to bring his brothers into a right state of
heart and he succeeded in it, though the process was more painful
to him than to them!
At last he could not restrain himself, but burst into weeping
before them all, for there was a big loving heart under the Egyptian
garb of Joseph! He loved with all his soul and so will every man
who has God with him, for "God is Love." If you do not love, God
is not with you. If you go through the world selfish and morose,
bitter, suspicious, bigoted, hard–the devil is with you! God is not
for where God is He expands the spirit! He causes us to love all
mankind with the love of benevolence and He makes us take a
sweet complacency in the chosen brotherhood of Israel, so that we
especially delight to do good to all those who are of the household
of faith. This was a mark that God was with Joseph.
Another mark of God's Presence with Joseph was his great
wisdom. He did everything as it ought to be done. You can scarcely
alter anything in Joseph's life to improve it and I think if I admire
his wisdom in one thing more than another it is in his wonderful
silence. It is easy to talk, comparatively easy to talk well, but to be
quiet is the difficulty! He never said a word, that I can learn, about
Potiphar's wife. It seemed necessary to his own defense, but he
would not accuse the woman. He let judgment go by default and
left her to her own conscience and her husband's cooler
consideration. This showed great power. It is hard for a man to
compress his lips, saying nothing, when his character is at stake. So
eloquent was Joseph in his silence that there is not a word of
complaint throughout the whole record of his life.
We cannot say that of all the Bible saints, for many of them
complained bitterly! Indeed, we have whole books of lamentations!
We do not condemn those who did complain, but we greatly admire
those, who like sheep before the shearers, were dumb. The iron
entered into his soul, but he does not tell us so–we look to the
Psalms for that information. He bore in calm resignation all the
great Father's will. When his brothers stood before him–the cruel
men who sold him–he did not upbraid them. In fact, he comforted
them, saying, "Now therefore be not grieved, nor angry with
yourselves, that you sold me here: for God did send me before you
to preserve life." Making sweet excuse for them, he said, "And
God sent me before you to preserve you a posterity in the earth,
and to save yourselves by a great deliverance. So now it was not
you that sent me here, but God."
How different from the spirit of those people who pry about,
seeking to discover faults, and when an imperfection is marked,
they cry, "Look! Did you see that? I told you so! These good men
are no better than they should be." Yes, it may be true that there are
spots in the sun, but there are greater spots in your eyes or you
would see more of the Light of God! Those who see faults so
readily have plenty of their own. Like the man who stole the goods
and ran away, they try to turn the scent by calling, "Thief, thief,"
after others! May God make us blind to the faults of His people
sooner than allow us to have a lynx eye for their flaws and an
inventive faculty to ascribe ill motives to them! I wish we were as
wisely silent as Joseph was. We may often repent of speech, but I
think very seldom of silence. You may complain and be justified in
the complaint, but you will have far more glory if you do not
complain!
For what was there, after all, for Joseph to complain of, since the
Lord was with him? He was in prison–that is something to
complain of. Yes, but if the Lord was with him, the prison was no
longer dreary! I would gladly go to prison any day if the Lord
would be with me! Who would not? But Joseph was away from his
beloved father and the trotting of those little feet that he loved so
much to hear–the feet of little brother Benjamin. I am sure Joseph
always missed his mother's only other son, his only full brother. It
was a great grief to him to be away from home, but still, he was
quiet, calm and happy. God is with him, if Benjamin is not! If
father Jacob is away, God is present! And thus he finds no cause for
bitter lament, but much reason for accepting his lot and doing his
best in each condition.
"God was with him" and this is the last evidence I give of it–that
he was kept faithful to the Covenant, faithful to Israel and to
Israel's God right through. Pharaoh gave him, in marriage, the
daughter of a priest. And the priests were the highest class
throughout Egypt–so Joseph was thus promoted to nobility by
marriage, as well as to be at the head of all the nobility by office.
They cried before him, "Bow the knee," and everyone honored him
throughout all the land of Egypt. Yet he would not be an Egyptian–
he was an Israelite, still, and his good old father, when he came
down into Egypt, found him one of the family in heart and soul!
His father's blessing was greatly prized by Joseph and he obtained
it for himself and for his sons.
I notice with much pain that many professors who prosper in this
world have not God with them, for they turn into Egyptians–they
do not, now, care for the simple worship of God's people–they sigh
for something more showy and more respectable! They need
society and so they seek out a fashionable church and swallow their
principles! They lay it all upon their children, for who can expect
young ladies and gentlemen to attend an ordinary Meeting House
where such low people go? For the sake of the young people, they
are bound to mix with society, and so they leave their principles,
their people and their God! They become Egyptians! Indeed, some
of them would become devil-worshippers to gain rank and status!
Off they go to Egypt, shoals of them! I have seen it and shall see
it again. If some of you get rich, I dare say you will do the same–it
seems to be the way of men–as soon as a professor prospers in the
world, he is ashamed of the Truth of God he once loved. Such
apostates will find it heavy work to die! Verily, I say unto you,
instead of their being ashamed of us, we have good reason to be
ashamed of them, for it is to their disgrace that they cannot be
content to associate with God's chosen because they happen to be
poor and, perhaps, illiterate! Joseph stuck to his people and to their
God–though he must live in Egypt, he will not be an Egyptian! He
will not even leave his dead body to lie in an Egyptian pyramid!
The Egyptians built a very costly tomb for Joseph–it stands to this
day, but his body is not there. "I charge you," he said, "take my
bones with you, for I do not belong to Egypt. My place is in the
land of promise." "He gave commandment concerning his bones."
Let others do as they will, as for me, my lot is cast with those
who follow the Lord fully. Yes, my Lord, where you dwell, I will
dwell. Your people shall be my people, and your God my God, and
may my children be your children to the last generation. If the Lord
is with you, that is what you will say, but if He is not with you and
you prosper in the world, and increase in riches, you will turn your
back on Christ and His people–and we shall have to say, as Paul
did, "Demas has forsaken me, having loved this present world."
III. Thirdly, let us observe THE RESULT OF GOD'S BEING
WITH JOSEPH. The result was that, "He was a prosperous man."
But notice that although the Lord was with Joseph, it did not screen
him from hatred, "The Lord was with him, but his brothers hated
him. "Yes, and if the Lord loves a man, the world will spite him.
We know that we are God's children because the adversaries of
God are our adversaries! Furthermore, "The Lord was with
Joseph," but it did not screen him from temptation of the worst
kind–it did not prevent his master's wife casting her wicked eyes
upon him. The best of men may be tempted to the worst of crimes.
The Presence of God did not screen him from slander–the base
woman accused him of outrageous wickedness and God permitted
Potiphar to believe her. You and I would have said, "If the Lord is
with us, how can this evil happen to us?" Ah, but the Lord was with
him and yet he was a slandered man! No, the Divine Presence did
not screen him from pain, either. He sat in prison wearing fetters
till the iron entered into his soul and yet, "The Lord was with him."
That Presence did not save him from disappointment. He said to
the butler, "Think of me when it is well with you." But the butler
forgot him altogether! Everything may seem to go against you and
yet, God may be with you. The Lord does not promise you that you
shall have what looks like prosperity, but you shall have what is
real prosperity in the best sense.
Now, what did God's being with Joseph do for him? First, it
saved him from gross sin. He flees, he shuts his ears–he flees and
conquers–for God is with him! O young Friend, if God is with you
in the hour of temptation, you will need no better, no grander result
than to remain perfectly pure with garments unspotted by the flesh!
God was with him and the next result was it enabled him to act
grandly. Wherever he is, he does the right thing and does it
splendidly. If he is a slave, his master finds that he never had such a
servant! If he is in prison, those dungeons were never charmed by
the presence of such a ministering angel! If he is exalted to be with
Pharaoh, Pharaoh never had such a Chancellor of the finances of
Egypt–never were Egyptian finance so prosperous!
In such a manner did God help Joseph that he was enabled to
fulfill a glorious destiny, for if Noah was the world's second father,
what shall we say of Joseph, but that he was its foster nurse? The
human race had died of famine if Joseph's foresight had not laid by,
in store, the produce of the seven plenteous years, for there was a
famine over all lands! The wisdom of Joseph nourished all
mankind! It was no mean position for the young Hebrew to
occupy–to be manager of the commissariat of the whole known
world! If God is with us, we shall fulfill a noble destiny, too. It may
not be so widely known, so visible to human eye, but life is always
ennobled by the Presence of God! Also it gave Joseph a very happy
life, for taking the life of Joseph, all through, it is an enviable one.
Nobody would think of putting him down among the miserable. If
we had to make a selection of unhappy men, we certainly should
not think of Joseph! No, it was a great life and a happy life–and
such will yours be if God is with you.
And, to finish, God gave Joseph and his family a double portion
in Israel, which never happened to any other of the 12 sons of
Jacob. Jacob said, "And now your two sons, Ephraim and
Manasseh, which were born unto you in the land of Egypt before I
came unto you into Egypt are mine; as Reuben and Simeon they
shall be mine," thus making each of them into a tribe. Ephraim and
Manasseh each stood at the head of a tribe as if they had been
actually sons of Jacob! Levi is taken out of the 12 and provision is
made for the Levites as servants of God. And then Ephraim and
Manasseh are put in, so that Joseph's house figures twice among
the twelve! There are two Josephs in Israel but only one Judah!
Joseph has a double portion of the kingdom!
Those who begin early with God, stand fast to the end and hold to
God both in trouble and prosperity, shall see their children brought
to the Lord–and in their children they shall possess the double–yes,
the Lord shall render unto them double for all they may lose in
honor for His name's sake. It may be they shall live to see the hand
of the Lord upon their children and their children's children! And to
them shall be fulfilled the Word of God, "In you shall Israel bless,
saying, God make you as Ephraim and as Manasseh." Let us seek
after a double part with God's people by keeping heartily with
them. Who is willing to suffer with them that he may reign with
them? Who is willing to cast the riches of Egypt behind his back
that he may have a double portion in the promised land, the land
flowing with milk and honey?
I think I hear some of you say, "Here I am, Sir. I shall be glad
enough to share with God's people, be it what it may." Carry
Christ's Cross and you shall wear Christ's crown! Go with Him
through the mire and through the slough and you shall be with Him
in the palaces of Glory! You shall share a double portion with Him
in the day of His appearing. This can only be because the Lord is
with you–that must be the beginning and end of it! "The Lord was
with Joseph"–O Lord, be with us! O You, whose name is
Emmanuel, God With Us, be with us from now on and forever!
Amen and Amen!
Ge 41:9 • Have You Forgotten Him?
ERMON 0680
Have You Forgotten Him?
"I do remember my faults this day."
Genesis 41:9
Our memory is like theirs, only in proportion as it is developed
this peculiarity is more manifest. We have a most convenient
warehouse for storing the merchandise of evil, but the priceless
jewels of goodness are readily stolen from their case. We have a
fireproof safe for worthless matters, and enclose the rarest gems in
mere pasteboard cases. Our memory, like a strainer, often suffers
the good wine to pass through but retains all the dregs. It holds the
bad in an iron grasp and plays with good till it slips through the
fingers. Our memories, like ourselves, have done the things which
they ought not to have done, and have left undone the things which
they ought to have done–and there is no health in them.
Among other things, it is not always easy to remember our faults.
We have special and particular reasons for not wishing to be too
often reminded of them. Few men care to keep their faults in the
front room of the house. Underground, in the darkest cellar, and, if
possible with the door locked and the key lost–it is there we would
like to conceal our faults from ourselves. If, however, the Grace of
God has entered into a man he will pray that he may remember his
faults and he will ask Divine Grace that if he should forget any
excellences which he once supposed he had, he may not forget his
defects, his sins, his infirmities and his transgressions. He would
have them constantly before himthat he may be humbled by them
and led to seek pardon for them and help to overcome them.
I do not say that the butler in this case had any work of Divine
Grace in his heart, but I shall use him as an illustration and hope by
using my watchman's rattle, to wake up some of your sleepy
memories, for there are thieves about, and you are being robbed
without knowing it! It will be a healthy result to us all if we shall
be compelled to say at the end of this sermon, "I do remember my
faults this day."
In the first place this morning, using the butler as our illustration,
we shall state his faults. Secondly, we shall consider the
circumstances which refreshed his memory. And, thirdly we shall
show the good points in his remembrance.
We shall first call your attention to the BUTLER'S FAULTS, for
his faults are ours, only ours are on a larger scale. "I do remember
my faults this day." His particular fault was that he had forgotten
Joseph–having promised to remember him when it should be well
with him–he had altogether overlooked the circumstances which
occurred in the prison. Instead he had been enjoying himself and
leaving his friend to pine in obscurity.
Here, then, is the first fault–the butler had forgotten a friend. That
is never a thing to be said to a man's praise. We ought to write the
deeds of friendship as much as possible in marble–and that man is
unworthy of esteem who can readily forget favors received. Joseph
had done all that he could to make the butler's sojourn in prison
comfortable. It was hard, that so soon as the butler had escaped
from prison his friend Joseph had escaped his memory. Save us
from men who can so easily forget!
But you and I have a Friend! We call Him very dear. We are
accustomed to speak of Him in very rapturous terms. We declare
that no others have such a Friend as we have. We have made our
boast that there is none other that deserves the name in comparison
with Him whom we call our best Beloved. And yet how many of us
have forgotten Him?! His name blessed self–alas, how cold our
love to Him! This fault will not strike the carnal mind as being a
great one, but in proportion as our hearts are spiritual and under the
influence of the Holy Spirit, we shall feel it a great and grievous sin
to have in any measure forgotten our best Friend.
The circumstances were these–the butler was in prison, and then
this friend came to him and spoke comfortably to him. Do you
remember when you were in prison? I never can forget when I was
bound in fetters far harder, heavier, and more painful to wear than
fetters of iron. It was a dark dungeon, without a ray of light. There
was no rest in it neither night nor day. A certain fearful looking for
judgment and of fiery indignation haunted that gloomy cell. I
struggled to be free, but the more I struggled the more hard did my
bondage become. I was as one in the deep mire, who, byevery
struggle only sinks himself the more hopelessly in it.
Do you not remember? Oh, Believers, you have passed through
the same experience! Your feet were in the stocks, you laid in the
innermost prison while the whip of the Law frequently fell upon
your backs. The sentence of execution thundered in your ears and
you trembled lest you should be dragged forth to your doom! Do
you not remember it, the wormwood and the gall? Joseph came to
the butler and said, "Why do you look so sadly today?" In our case
we have not forgotten how Jesus came to us and enquired into our
state. With what tender accents of sympathy did He address our
hearts!
He told us–and we could readily believe it–that He would not
quench the smoking flax, nor break the bruised reed. We had not
been accustomed to be addressed in this fashion, for the voice of
Moses is far from musical, and his tones are very grating to the ear.
But when Jesus spoke it was all soft and sweet. "Poor Sinner!" He
said, as though He pitied rather than blamed. He looked upon us
not with an eye searching for iniquity, but with a heart which saw
our calamity and which looked for the means to deliver us! Have
you forgotten those times of brokenness of spirit when the only
comfort which you knew was the name of Jesus? When the only
stay for the hunger and thirst which were in your spirits was a
morsel or two of His sweet love which He graciously cast to you to
keep you by the way?
Do you remember your dream? The butler had a dream. Do you
remember yours? It was more than a night dream–it was a day
dream with a terrible interpretation appended to it in your mind.
You dreamed of a vine, too, and you were the cluster, and you
dreamed of the time when you should be cast into the winepress,
and trod beneath the feet of almighty Wrath until your blood should
fill the cup of Divine vengeance even to the brim! Do you
remember that dream? How it haunted you, and seemed like some
huge bird of prey with black wings and horrid cries, fluttering over
you as though about to tear you in pieces?
I remember when day was night to me, and night was worse than
night. "Then You scare me with dreams, and terrify me through
visions," was the cry of Job, and such has been the lament of many
and many a heart under the weight of sin. Oh, how guilt can
thunder in our ears! How the Word of God can grow terrible and
stern! "God is angry with you! God is angry with the wicked every
day! It is appointed unto all men once to die, and after death the
judgment." In our terror we could see the rider on the pale horse
and feel ourselves overtaken by him and struck down by the horses'
hoofs! We saw ourselves cast into the pit of Hell and seemed to be
falling, falling, falling, ever sinking from the angry glance of God
and still as dreadfully near to it as before! That was our dream, and
the interpretation, the only interpretation whichseemed to fit it was
this, "You will be banished from His Presence into eternal misery."
Beloved, do you remember when Jesus came with the
interpretation of a very different kind, just as Joseph did to the
butler? He interpreted to the butler that Pharaoh would lift him up
and put him in his place again. And so Jesus came to us and told us
that we were condemned in ourselves but that we might not be
condemned at the last. He told us that we had a sentence of death in
ourselves because God intended never to pass that sentence in the
Court of Heaven and had, instead, passed it in the Court of our
conscience.
He told us that God never kills with His Law in the heart without
intending to make alive! That when He wounds He heals! That
when He strips He means to clothe. We did not understand this. We
thought that all this terrible dealing within our heart was the
prelude of everlasting judgment! But He showed us that as many as
God loves He rebukes and chastens. That it is the way with Him to
break up the clods with the plow before He casts in the golden
seed–and to dig out deep foundations before He piles polished
stones one upon another to make a temple to His praise. Ah, I never
shall forget when, at the foot of the Cross, I saw the interpretation
of all my inward griefs when I looked up and saw the flowing of
my Savior's precious blood–and had the great riddle all solved. My
Brothers and Sisters, what a discovery was that when we learned
the secret that we were to be saved not by whatwe were or were to
be, but saved by what Christ had done for us! The simplicity of the
Cross is the grandest of all revelations. "Look unto Me and be you
saved, all you ends of the earth." Why it is as simple as the
interpretation which Joseph gave to the dream! But in its simplicity
lies a great part of its sweetness. How was it that I was such a fool
as not to understand it before–that for every sinner who was truly a
sinner, and had no righteousness of his own– Jesus Christ is made
righteousness and salvation? And that every sinner who confesses
with a broken heart that he deserves God's wrath, he may know
that Jesus has suffered all God's wrath for him, and that therefore
God is no longer angry with him–for all His anger has been spent
upon the Person of Jesus Christ?!
How sweet it is to understand that all our soul's terrors and alarms
are only meant to bring us to the Cross! That they are not intended
to make us look at ourselves, to search for comfort there–nor
intended to set us upon paving a way to Heaven by our own
exertions–but to lead us to Jesus! Happy day! We see Jesus as the
cluster crushed until the heart's blood flows and can, by faith, go in
unto the King, with Jesus Christ's own precious blood and offer
that, just as the butler stood before Pharaoh with the wine cup in
his hand. I bear a cup filled not with my blood but His blood! Not
the blood from me as a cluster of the vine of earth, but the blood of
Jesus as a cluster of Heaven's own vintage, pouring out its precious
floods to make glad the heart of God and man. Here lies our fault–
that we have forgotten all this–not forgotten the fact, but forgotten
to love Him who gave us that soul-comforting, heart-cheering
interpretation!
Beloved, when Jesus revealed Himself at first, our hearts were
ready to leap out of our bodies for joy! Do you remember the time
you thought you could sing always and never stop? Nothing was
too hard, no burden was too heavy for you then–for your soul was
all on fire with love. But ah, since then, what a sad declension! You
forgot your Joseph. You forgot your Friend who gave you this kind
interpretation of your dream!
Dear Friends, there was something which ought to have made the
butler remember Joseph. When I read the story just now, it came
very vividly to my own mind. It was this–that there was another in
prison at the same time with him–and what had become of him?
The baker had been hanged! And if the butler had chosen to walk
out, he might have seen the relics of the body of his poor miserable
companion–gibbeted to be fed upon by kites and carrion crows.
That poor wretch had dreamed a dream, too, but the interpretation
had been very different.
When some of us look back to the time when we were in sin with
others, and recollect that although we are here, the living, to praise
the Redeemer's name, some of our old companions are–we shudder
to think of it, but it is so–at this moment in Hell! How shall we
praise the electing Grace which has made us to differ? It is a
solemn thought that such differences should occur–
"Why were we made to hear His voice,
And enter while there's room,
When thousands make a wretched choice,
And rather starve than come?"
Some of you used to spend hour after hour in the public house,
and you could blaspheme God's name. And while those whom you
once drank with are now drinking the cup of God's wrath, you,
who were not one whit better than they–in some points even
worse–are now saved by Sovereign Grace.
Discriminating Grace should always give a high tone to our
gratitude. He has not dealt thus with every people. Praise the Lord!
If you whom God has chosen, and whom Christ has specially and
effectually called by Divine Grace from among others–if you do
not remember Him, what shall I say to you? Oh, dear Friends, how
it should humble you and bow you down in the dust that after such
remarkable, peculiar, distinguishing love as that of which you have
been the subjects, you should still forget your dear Friend, and fail
in point of duty where you ought to have been faithful to Him!
We have not, however, quite done with the case of the butler and
Joseph. The request which Joseph made of the butler was a very
natural one. He said, "Think of me when it is well with you." He
asked no hard, difficult, exacting favor, but simply, "Think of me,
and speak to Pharaoh. You will have his ear in moments when
kings are most likely to be in good humor. You will wait upon him
at his feasts–then, when it is well with you and the time is come–
put in a word for your poor friend who will be pining away in the
damps of the dungeon." It was a very simple thing, and I will be
bound to say the butler said to him, "Oh, my dear fellow, I will not
only do that, but I do not know what I will not do for you! You
shall be out of prison within a week and I will take good care that
you have the fat of all the land of Egypt,
But he did nothing of the kind. What the Savior asks of us, His
servants, is most natural and most simple, and quite as much for
our good as it is for His Glory. Among other things, He has said to
all of you who love Him, "This do in remembrance of Me." He has
asked you to gather around His table, and break bread with His
servants, and feast with Him. Some of you have never obeyed His
command yet–you say you love Him–but you forget Him. It was
kind of Him to institute that blessed ordinance to help your
memory.
It is doubly unkind of you that you not only forget Him but are
not willing to use the means to have that frail memory of yours
refreshed. Moreover, of you who come to His Table He asks the
favor to speak a good word for Him wherever you have an
opportunity. During the last week have you spoken for Jesus? He
asks you to spread abroad the savor of His name–have you done so
during the last month or not? He requests of you that as you are an
heir with Him and a partaker of His kingdom, you will help Him to
spread it–not by word of mouth only–but by your gifts and by your
labors. What have you done?
Suppose that now the Lord Jesus Christ should occupy this pulpit
instead of me, and stand here and spread His hands and show you
His wounds? Could you dare to look at Him? Might not some of
you have crimsoned cheeks as you would have to confess, "Ah,
Master, we have forgotten You. As to much practical service and
honor of Your name, we have been quite as negligent as the butler
was concerning Joseph." Well, He is here in spirit, and He will
soon be here in Person. Servants of the Master, be faithful to your
Master! But oh, all you who lean upon His bosom, and have
familiar union with Him–I will not merely speak of faithfulness to
you, but I charge you by your love, by the lilies, and by the animals
of the field–see to it that you not forget your Beloved! Day by day,
and hour by hour, feast Him with your wine, with your milk, with
the choicest of your gifts, and the richest products of your souls!
Labor for Him, live for Him, and be ready to die for Him who has
done so much for you!
I have thus stated the butler's case, but I shall want to pause a
minute or two over this head just to go into the reason of his fault.
Why was it that he did not remember Joseph? There is always a
reason for everything, if we but try to find it out. He must have
been swayed by one of three reasons. Perhaps the butler was
naturally ungrateful. We do not know, but that may have been the
case. He may have been a person who could receive unbounded
favors without a due sense of obligation. I trust that is not our case
in the fullest and most unmitigated sense–but I am afraid we must
all plead guilty in a measure. Were there ever such ungrateful ones
as the saints of God? We treat no other friend so badly as we treat
our Lord!
We love our parents. We feel gratitude towards friends who have
assisted us in times of need. We are bound by very strong ties to
certain persons who were very greatly an assistance to us in a
pinch. But our dear Savior–better than father and mother, fonder
than the fondest friend, closer than the most loving spouse–how ill
we use Him! I am afraid, Brethren, we had better all of us say it is
ingratitude here–we are basely ungrateful to Him. But let us not
confess it as a matter of course–let us be ashamed to have such a
thing to say! Let us feel that it lowers us more than anything else
could lower us–that it proves how total, how abject, how degrading
must have been the Fall of Adam, that even the love of Jesus Christ
shed abroad in hearts like ours in such a remarkable and plenteous
manner cannot cure us of the base and detestable vice of
ingratitude!
Oh You dear One, can I look upon Your face, all covered with
Your bloody sweat? Can I view You again all covered with the
spittle from the mouths of Your enemies? Can I see You in Your
thirst and anguish on the Cross and know that every pang was for
me, and every woe for me–and not a groan or spasm of pain for
Yourself, but all for love of me who was Your enemy–and can I,
after that, forget You? Oh my Soul, loathe yourself that you should
be ungrateful to Him!
Perhaps, however, worldly care choked the memory. The chief
butler had a great deal to do–he had many underservants, and
having to wait in a palace much care was required. He who serves a
despot like the king of Egypt must be very particular in his service.
It is very possible that the butler was so busy with his work and his
gains, and looking after his fellow servants and all that, that he
forgot poor Joseph. Is it not very possible that this may be the case
with us? We forget the Lord Jesus to whom we are bound by such
ties because our business is so large, our family so numerous, our
cares so pressing, our bills and bonds so urgent–and even, perhaps,
our gains are so large!
There is as much power to divide the heart from Christ in gain as
there is in loss. In fact, the sharpest edge of the world's sword is
prosperity. The back cut of adversity very seldom wounds as
prosperity does. And yet, dear Friends, what are all these cares that
they should make us forget our Lord? I know not to what to
compare us. Unto what shall I compare our folly? We are like
children in the marketplace who have their little plays and games,
their pieces of broken crock and stick and stone and these take up
all their thoughts. And they forget their dear mother who is calling
them. She has nourished these children, and day by day her heart
cares for them, but they forget her.
They cannot live without her–they must go to her for all their
necessities–the very garments on their backs are her workmanship,
and the food that keeps life in their bodies she must find. But they
are too busy, too busy with these little plays and toys and mere dirt
and such things as children in the market will play with–too busy to
think of her. Oh, it is base that it should be so, but we are sadly
worldly. I am afraid John Bunyan's picture of the man with the
muck-rake is not altogether unlike some of God's own children.
Here we are with the rake groping over the dunghill, although
above us stands the angel with the golden crown calling to us to
look up from the dunghill and remember our lasting and enduring
portion! But no, not we–that dunghill takes up so much of our time
and thoughts that the crown is forgotten!
Do not misunderstand me, I would not have you be negligent in
business–neither reason nor Revelation require that–but oh, if you
could remember the Savior in it all, and if you traded for His sake
and worked for Him, and in the ordinary deeds of life did all as
unto the Lord ("whether you eat, or drink, or whatever you do, do
all in the name of the Lord Jesus")–then, truly, everything might
remind you of Him and both gain and loss, mercy and misery might
only drive you nearer to His blessed bosom!
I am half ashamed to have to say one thing more. I am afraid that
the butler forgot Joseph out of pride because he had grown to be
such a great man and Joseph was in prison. He was butler to the
king. Now when he was in prison Joseph was his equal, and in
some sense his superior for he waited on him. But now my lord, the
butler, has great interest at court and he wears splendid garments,
and he is very great among his fellow servants. Joseph–Joseph
smells of the dungeon! He is a jailbird, and quite beneath him. He
knows not what Joseph is to become–that all the glories of the land
of Egypt are to be at Joseph's feet–but he is ashamed of Joseph.
I do not suppose this operates with many of you, but I have
known it with some professed Believers. When they were little in
Israel, when they first professed to have found peace, oh, how they
acknowledged Jesus! But they got on in the world and prospered–
and then they could not worship among those poor people who
were good enough for them once–they now drive to a more
fashionable place of worship where the Lord Jesus is seldom heard
of. They feel themselves bound to get into a higher class of society,
as they call it, and the poor despised cause of Jesus is beneath
them, forgetting, as they foolishly do, that the day will come when
Christ's cause shall be uppermost!
They forget that the world shall go down and the faithful
followers of the Lord Jesus shall be peers and princes even in this
world, and reign with Him–He being King of kings and Lord of
lords–and they sitting upon His Throne and sharing in His royal
dignity. I hope none of you have forgotten Christ because of that. I
do not know, though–I have my fears of some of you. I do know
this, that many a working man thinks more of Christ while he is so
than he does when he rises above his fellows. We have heard of one
who used to give much when he was poor, but when he grew rich
he gave less, and he said, "when I had a shilling purse I had a
guinea heart, and wished I could do much more for Christ. But now
I have a guinea purse I find I have only a shilling heart, and I am
for stinting and doing less."
Oh let it not be so! Shall it be that the more He gives the less we
give, and the more He shows his love, the less we show our love?
God forbid that we should do this, but by every tie of gratitude let
us serve Him more and more each day! There was very great
heinousness in this forgetfulness on the part of the butler and he
ought to have felt it. Perhaps the way for us to see our own fault is
this. Suppose the butler had put himself in Joseph's place and said,
"Now I wonder what Joseph thinks of my conduct? Suppose I were
Joseph in prison, and I had done this favor to someone else? How
should I feel with regard to his forgetfulness?"
My dear Friends, can you suppose yourselves in Jesus Christ's
place? Suppose it possible that you could have died for another,
and by your death could have saved him and made him the partaker
of everlasting joys? What would you think of him if he treated you
as you treat Jesus Christ? You would say, "I am ashamed of him. I
regret that ever I spent so much love on such a thankless person."
Judge, then–judge your own case! Again, he might have judged of
the heinousness of his forgetfulness by considering his conduct as
he would have considered it at the first. Suppose a prophet had told
you, when you were first converted, that you would live as you
have done? Could you have believed it? You would have said
"Never! If the Lord Jesus Christ does but take my burden off my
back and set me free, there is nothing which I will not do for Him. I
will be none of your cold, dead professors, not I."
But you have been, dear Friends! You have been just as lukewarm
as others. Judge of your sin as you would have judged of it at the
first. Again, will you please to judge of it as you judge of other
people? What do you think of other cold hearts? What do you think
of other chilly professors, whose lives are lukewarm, and whose
love knows no fervency? Judge yourselves by the same judgment.
Put your spirit in the same scale and be humbled! Yes, let every one
of us lay his mouth in the dust as we confess this day that we are
verily guilty concerning the Lord Jesus. Let us all remember our
faults this day.
II. The second point is this–WHAT CIRCUMSTANCES
BROUGHT THE FAULT TO THE BUTLER'S MIND? The same
circumstances which surround us this morning. First, he met with a
person in the same condition as that in which he once was. King
Pharaoh had dreamed a dream and wished for an interpretation.
Joseph could interpret–and the butler remembered his fault.
Brothers and Sisters in Christ, there are those in the world who
are in the same state of mind as you were once in. They once loved
sin and hated God and were strangers and aliens from the
commonwealth of Israel. But in some of them there has been the
mysterious working of the Holy Spirit and they have dreamed a
dream. They are awakened, although not yet enlightened. Salvation
is a riddle to them at present, and they want the interpretation. Do
you not remember how the Gospel was blessed to you? Do you not
desire to send it to others? If you cannot preach yourself, will you
not help me in my life-work of training others to preach Jesus?
If I could bring before you this morning a score or two of anxious
persons up from country villages and remote parts of our own land,
you would say, "Oh, let me tell them about the Savior, or let me
help to send someone to them who will do so." That is just the
effect I want to produce without using that means. I want to make
you remember your Lord Jesus–practically remember Him–by
reminding you that there are persons who are now seeking Him,
who are now panting after Him who have not yet heard the Gospel!
They are longing for some herald of peace to come to them and
proclaim the good news. By the love of souls, aid me in my great
anxiety to supply the needs of the age with a ministry called of God
to preach His Truth.
The next thing that recalled the butler's thought was this–he saw
that many means had been used to interpret Pharaoh's dream, but
they had all failed. We read that Pharaoh sent for his wise men but
they could not interpret his dream. You are in a similar case. There
are thousands in England who are trying to minister to spiritual
necessities–above all we have Popery in its double form–Romish
and Anglican–doing its best to interpret the dream of the human
heart. You know what a sad mess it makes of it–it gives a stone
instead of bread–brings to poor, needy, guilty man, anything but the
Savior he wants.
Now, as you hear these foolish wise men all blundering over the
dream, do you not think of the Joseph who could interpret it? And
as you hear these men holding up baptismal regeneration and
sacramental salvation, does not your tongue long to say, "O fools!
O generation of simpletons! It is Christ Jesus who is the great
Interpreter–He alone can supply human necessities." Do you not
feel a need, if you cannot go and preach yourselves, to help others
to do so? Will you remember Jesus Christ as you remember how
many are perverting the Gospel and preaching anything rather than
the merit of His Cross? Remember your Lord today and your faults
concerning Him, but let your remembrance lead to future diligence
in His cause.
Then, again, if the butler could have known it, he had other
motives for remembering Joseph. It was through Joseph that the
whole land of Egypt was blessed. Joseph comes out of prison,
interprets the dream which God had given to the head of the State,
and that interpretation preserved all Egypt, yes, and all other
nations during seven years of drought! Only Joseph could do it. Oh
Brothers and Sisters, you know that it is only Jesus who is the balm
of Gilead for the wounds of this poor dying world! You know that
there is nothing which can bless our land, and all other lands, like
the Cross of Jesus Christ! Have you forgotten your Savior? Have
you allowed His Gospel to be by without preaching it yourselves or
helping others to preach it? Have you suffered the precious Truth of
God to be like Joseph, hidden in prison, when you might have
helped to bring it out into open court that others might hear and
know the sound which has made glad your own heart? Then, as you
remember England, the country of your love. As you remember
other lands, which in proportion are dear to you, will you not think
of Jesus today and do something for the promotion of His cause?
Once more, surely the butler would have remembered Joseph had
he known to what an exaltation Joseph would be brought. Under
God it was all through the butler saying, "I remember Joseph," that
Joseph came out of prison, that he stood before Pharaoh, that he
rode in the second chariot, that the heralds cried before him, "Bow
the knee!" and that Joseph, the poor prisoner, became governor
over the land of Egypt! Christian, would you like to lift up the
name of Jesus from obscurity into the throne of the human heart?
At this present moment throughout this world Jesus Christ is still
the despised and rejected of men! He is still a root out of a dry
ground to the mass of mankind, and the only way in which He can
be exalted is by loving hearts telling of Him and helping others to
tell of Him. Think of the splendor which yet will surround our Lord
Jesus! He shall come, Beloved, He shall come in the chariots of
salvation! The day draws near when all things shall be put under
Him. Kings shall yield their crowns to His superior sway and
whole sheaves of scepters, plucked from tyrants' hands, shall be
gathered beneath His arms–
"Look, you saints, the sight is glorious,
See the 'Man of Sorrows' now?
From the fight returned victorious,
Every knee to Him shall bow."
You by testifying of Him are promoting the extension of His
kingdom and doing the best that lies in you to gather together the
scattered who are to be the jewels of His crown. Surely the thought
of His exaltation fires you with delight! The prospect of
magnifying Him, of setting Him on high and helping to adorn His
head–or even to strew the path beneath His feet–must fill your soul
with a celestial ardor! Do not forget Him, then, but let the fact that
you are in this position today–that you can glorify Jesus, that you
can bless the world–let this encourage you to remember your faults
this day.
III. In the last place, I have a few things to say by way of
COMMENDATION OF THE BUTLER'S REMEMBRANCE. It is
a pity he forgot Joseph, but it is a great blessing that he did not
always forget him. It is a sad thing that you and I should have done
so little–it is a mercy that there is time left for us to do more!
One of our dear friends said this morning–one of our beloved
deacons–when I was asking him about some of the Churches he has
been to visit–places where we are forming new Churches–what he
thought of the work which was going on. "Oh," he said, "it is such
a glorious work, and God is so marvelous in it that I wish I were
younger that I might live to see more of it." He is not old, but he
wished he were much younger that he might see God's gracious
work going on for many years as it is now progressing through
God's Grace in our midst. Our College is a mighty lever with
which the Lord is working and if God's people knew more of it
they would help it more.
I like the butler's remembrance, first of all, because it was very
humbling to him. He had to say it to Pharaoh. Pharaoh was angry
and put his servant in prison. That was not a very pleasant thing for
the butler to say to the king, "My Lord, you were angry with me
and put me in prison." But though it was a humbling thing, it was
very necessary that he should say it and be reminded of it. Let us
go before God with the confession, "Lord, I was as base and vile as
any. Your Cross saved me. I was an heir of wrath even as others.
Jesus did all this for me, blessed be His name, and I humble myself
to think that I should so treacherously have forgotten Him who was
so kind to me." I commend his remembrance for another thing,
namely, that it was so personal. "I do remember my faults this
day."What capital memories we have for treasuring up other
people's faults, for once, let us keep to ourselves. Let the
confession begin with the minister. "I do remember my faults this
day." This is not the place for me to tell you of them, though I dare
say you see them without any telling of mine, but I do remember
them. They make a long list. My Brethren in office–the deacons
and elders–I have no charge against them, but I have no doubt they
can all say, "I do remember my faults this day."
You members of this Church, some old and gray, some young
beginners, many of you parents and people in middle life–I suppose
there is not one of you but what might say–"Yes, I do remember
my faults this day." Let it go round. Do not let there be an
exception to the case–let each Christian, instead of thinking about
others, make it a personal matter, "I do remember my faults this
day." I could wish that the unconverted here would join with us.
Your fault–the great fault with you–is that you do not believe in
Jesus Christ. You do not trust Him with your souls, but are still
strangers to Him. I wish you could say, now, you up in that gallery
there, each one of you, "I do remember my faults this day." And the
whole body of you down below the stairs, and you around the
pulpit, "I do remember my faults this day." It is a good sign of true
repentance when it is personal repentance. Every man must mourn
apart, and every womanday." The best part of it, perhaps, was the
practical nature of the confession. The moment he remembered his
fault, he redressed it as far as he could. He could not make up to his
poor friend for the days he had been lying in prison, but he spoke to
Pharaoh directly. That action was the means of bringing Joseph out.
Now, dear Friends, if you remember your faults to the Lord Jesus,
may you have Grace not to fall into them again! If you have not
spoken for Him, speak today! If you have not given to His cause,
give now! If you have not devoted yourselves as you ought to have
done to the promotion of His kingdom, do it now! Oh, Sinner, if
you have not believed in Christ, may God the Holy Spirit lead you
to believe now! It is of no use remembering a debt if you do not
pay it. And it is of no avail to remember a fault if you do not repent
of it.
I have little by way of urging you as a congregation to do more in
the service of the Master. Often I feel held back by the thought that
you are doing so much, but oh, if we could do as much as possible,
if every one of us felt pledged, for the Lord's cause and the
Redeemer's kingdom, that there should be nothing within the range
of possibility to mortal man that we would not attempt for such a
King, for such a Lord, oh, then we should see blessed days!! You
have had a zealous spirit. You still have it–but you need still more
of it, and may God send it to you!
We are helping to send the Gospel throughout all this country, and
to different countries abroad as well. Do not hold back when God is
blessing! Your parts help is still required–be not slow to render it.
Do come forward with us and help us to magnify the Savior's name
till the ends of the earth shall know it, and all nations shall call Him
blessed! The Lord bless these words for the sake of Jesus Christ
our Lord. Amen.
Ge 42:1 • Corn in Egypt
ERMON 0234
Corn In Egypt
"Now when Jacob saw that there was corn in Egypt, Jacob said
unto his sons, Why do you look one upon another? And he said,
Behold, I have heard that there is corn in Egypt. Get down there
and buy for us from there, that we may live and not die."
Genesis 42:1, 2
GOD in His wisdom has so made the outward world that it is a
strange and wonderful picture of the inner world. Nature has an
analogy with Grace. The wonders that God does in the heart of
man–each of them finds a parallel, a picture, a metaphor, an
illustration–in the wonders which God performs in Providence. It is
the duty of the minister always to look for these analogies. Our
Savior did so. He is the model preacher–His preaching was made
up of parables, pictures from the outer world, accommodated to
teach great and mighty Truths of God. And so is man's mind
constituted that we can always see a thing better through a picture
than anywhere else. If you tell a man a simple Truth of God, he
does not see it nearly so well as if you told it to him in an
illustration. If I should attempt to describe the flight of a soul from
sin to Christ, you would not see it one half so readily as if I should
picture John Bunyan's pilgrim running out of the city of
destruction, with his fingers in his ears and hastening with all his
might to the wicket gate.
There is something tangible in a picture, a something which our
poor flesh and blood can lay hold of. And therefore the mind,
grasping through the flesh and the blood, is able to understand the
idea and to appropriate it. Hence the necessity and usefulness of the
minister always endeavoring to illustrate his sermon and to make
his discourse, as much as possible like the parables of Jesus Christ.
Now, there are very few minds that can make parables. The fact
is, I do not know of but one good allegory in the English language
and that is the "Pilgrim's Progress in Parables." Pictures and
analogies are not so easy as some think–most men can understand
them, but few can create them. Happy for us who are ministers of
Christ–we have no great trouble about this matter. We have not to
make parables. They are made for us. I believe that Old Testament
history has for one of its designs the furnishing of the Christian
minister with illustrations. So that a Truth of God which I find in
the New Testament in its naked form taught me as a doctrine, I find
in the Old Testament cast into a parable. And so would we use this
most excellent ancient book, the Old Testament, as an illustration
of the New and as a means of explaining to our minds the Truth of
God that is taught to us in a more doctrinal form in the New
Testament.
What, then, do we see in these two verses of the forty-second
chapter of Genesis? We have here a picture of man's lost estate, he
is in a sore soul-devouring famine. We discover here man's hope.
His hope lies in that Joseph, whom he knows not, has gone before
him and provided all things necessary, that his wants may be
supplied. And we have here practical advice, which was
preeminently wise on the part of Jacob to his sons in his case and
which, being interpreted, is also the wisest advice to you and to me.
Seeing that there is mercy for sinners and that Jesus our brother has
gone before us to provide for us an all-sufficient redemption–"why
sit we here and look one upon another?" There is mercy in the
breast of God, there is salvation in Christ–"get down there and buy
for us from there, that we may live and not die."
Three things, then, this morning–first, a pitiful plight. Secondly,
good news. And thirdly, excellent advice.
First, A PITIFUL PLIGHT. These sons of Jacob were overtaken
by a famine. We may talk of famines, friends, but none of us know
what they are. We have heard of a famine in Ireland and some
dreadful stories have been related to us that have harrowed our
hearts and almost made our hair stand up on end. But even there
the full fury of famine was not known. We have heard, too, to our
great grief, that there are still in this city, dark and hideous spots
where men and women are absolutely perishing from hunger, who
have sold from off their backs the last rags that covered them and
are now unable to leave the house–and positively perishing of
famine.
Such cases we have seen in our daily journals and our hearts have
been sick to think that such things should now occur. But we
cannot any of us guess what is the terror of an universal famine,
when all men are poor because all men lack bread, when gold and
silver are as valueless as the stones of the street, because mountains
of silver and gold would scarce suffice to buy a single sheaf of
wheat. Read the history of the famine of Samaria and see the
dreadful shifts to which women were driven, when they did even
eat their own offspring. Famines are hells on earth. The famine
which had overtaken Jacob was one which, if it had not at the
moment of which this passage speaks, exactly arrived at that
dreadful pitch, was sure to come to it. For the famine was to last for
seven years. And if, through the spendthrift character of Eastern
nations, they had not saved in the seven years of plenty enough
even for one year, what would become of them during the sixth or
seventh year of famine?
This was the state of Jacob's family. They were cast into a waste,
a howling wilderness of famine with but one oasis and that oasis
they did not hear of till just at the time to which our text refers,
when they learned to their joy that there was corn in Egypt. Permit
me now to illustrate the condition of the sinner by the position of
these sons of Jacob.
First, the sons of Jacob had a very great need of bread. There was
a family of sixty-six of them. We are apt, when we read these
names of the sons of Jacob, to think they were all lads. Are you
aware, that Benjamin, the youngest of them, was the father of ten
children at the time he went into Egypt? So he was not so very
small a lad at any rate and all the rest had large families, so that
there were sixty-six to be provided for. Well, a famine is frightful
enough when there is one man who is starving–when there is one
brought down to a skeleton through leanness and hunger–but when
sixty-six mouths are craving for bread, that is indeed a horrible
plight to be in.
But what is this compared with the sinner's needs! His necessities
are such that only Infinity can supply them. He has a demand
before which the demands of sixty-six mouths are as nothing. He
has before him the dreadful anticipation of a Hell from which there
is no escape. He has upon him the heavy hand of God, who has
condemned him on account of his sins. What needs he? Why, all
the manna that came down from Heaven in the wilderness would
not supply a sinner's necessities and all the water that gushed from
the rock in the desert would not be sufficient to quench his thirst.
Such is the need of the sinner, that all the hands full of Egypt's
seven years would be lost upon him. He needs great mercy. The
greatest of mercy–no, he needs an infinity of mercy and unless this
is given him from above, he is worse than starved, for he dies the
second death and lives in eternal death, without the hope of
annihilation or escape. The demands of a hungry man are great. But
the demands of a hungry soul are greater still. Until that soul gets
the love and mercy of God manifested to it, it will always hunger
and always thirst. Though it had worlds given it for mouthfuls, its
hungry stomach would be still unsatisfied, for nothing but the
Trinity can fill the heart of man. Nothing but an assurance of the
everlasting, immutable love of God and an application of the most
precious blood of Jesus can ever stay the terrible hunger of the
sinner's soul.
Mark again–what these people wanted was an essential thing.
They did not lack clothes, that were a want, but nothing like the
lack of bread. For a man might exist with but scanty covering. They
did not need luxuries–these they might want and our pity would not
be so much excited. They did not need tents–without these they
might be able to satisfy the cravings of nature. They lacked bread–
that without the fire of life would dwindle to a spark, which at last
must die out in the darkness of death.
"Bread! Bread!" What a cry is that, when men gather together and
in the days of scarcity make that their war cry. "Bread! Bread!"
What is a more dreadful sound than that? "Fire! Fire!" may be
more alarming, but "Bread! Bread!" is more piercing to the heart.
The cry of "Fire!" rolls like thunder. The cry of "Bread!" flashes
like lightning and withers one's soul. O that men should cry for
bread–the absolute necessity for the sustenance of the body! But
what is the sinner's want? Is it not exactly this? He wants that
without which the soul must perish. Oh, Sinner, if it were health, if
it were wealth, if it were comfort, which you were seeking, then
you might sit down content and say, "I can do without these." But
in this matter it is your soul, your never-dying soul, that is
hungering and it is its salvation, its rescue from the flames of Hell,
which now demands your attention. Oh, what a need is that–the
need of the soul's salvation! Talk we of bread and of skeleton
bodies? These are frightful things to look upon. But when we speak
of a lack of bread and of dying perishing souls, there is something
more frightful here. See, then, your case, you who are without the
Grace of God. You have great necessity–necessity for essential
things.
Yet again–the necessity of the sons of Jacob was a total one. They
had no bread. There was none to be procured. So long as they had
some of their own, they could stint themselves and diminish their
rations and so, by moderation, maintain themselves. But they
looked into the future and saw their children dying with hunger and
not one crust with which to palliate their pangs. They saw their
wives sickening before them and their babes at their breasts, unable
to obtain nourishment from those dry fountains. They saw
themselves at length, solitary, miserable men, with their hands on
their loins, bundles of bones, crawling about the tents where their
children lay dead and themselves without strength enough to bury
them. They had a total lack of bread. They might have borne with
scarceness–but a total lack of bread was horrible in the extreme.
Such is the sinner's case. It is not that he has a little grace and
lacks more. But he has none at all. Of himself he has no grace. It is
not that he has a little goodness and needs to be made better, but he
has no goodness at all, no merits, no righteousness–nothing to
bring to God, nothing to offer for his acceptance. He is penniless,
poverty-stricken–everything is gone whereon his soul might feed.
He may gnaw the dry bones of his own good works, but if the Lord
has sent conviction into his heart, he will gnaw them in vain. He
may try to break the bones of ceremonies, but he shall find that
instead of marrow they contain gall and bitterness. He may hunger
and hunger, because he has positively nothing with which he could
stay his stomach. Such is your case, then. How abject is such a
necessity as this–a total lack of an essential thing for which you
have an immense need.
But yet worse–with the exception of Egypt, the sons of Jacob
were convinced that there was no food anywhere. I believe the